While other kids played basketball, Gerald Coleman played hockey while growing up in Illinois. (Associated Press)

Goaltender Gerald Coleman was the first youth to make it into the league from the NHL's Diversity Program, which is under the leadership of the first black player to crack the colour barrier, Willie O'Ree.

Coleman, who learned the game in Evanston, Ill., played with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2005-06. He was traded to Anaheim and accompanied the team when they began this season with a pair of games in London, England. He plays for their American Hockey League affiliate in Portland.

Trevor Daley is in his fourth season as a strong presence on the Dallas Stars' blue-line. Despite learning to play in a hockey hotbed, he had to endure a well-publicized incident where his junior coach in Sault Ste. Marie was forced to resign after it was learned he used a racial slur in the dressing room to refer to an absent Daley.

CBCSports.ca talked to the pair individually about O' Ree and their experiences as biracial hockey players trying to reach the NHL, where progress for black players has been slow, but steadier in recent years.

When did you first become aware of Willie O' Ree and what he accomplished?
Trevor Daley: I probably heard his name through my dad. He always talked about him. I was fortunate enough that he was at the draft and he was there to congratulate me when I got drafted to Dallas and I've kept in contact with him ever since. He's a really great guy and it's great what he's done to help people like myself and the game of hockey.
Gerald Coleman: When I was 12, right before I got into the diversity program. They always wanted you to do book reports and I wanted to pick an athlete. Everyone always picked the same guys. I had just started to play hockey, and I just happened to come across Willie O'Ree and he became a hero of mine.

How did you pick up the game?
GC: My sister was a figure skater at a local rink. I watched kids on the ice when I was waiting for her. I didn't really know what hockey was. I asked my mom and she got me a pair of skates.
TD: I grew up in Toronto and we had a lot of outdoor rinks available. My dad's Jamaican and my mom's a white Canadian. My uncle, her brother, played hockey so I kind of followed in his footsteps.

Gerald, tell me about how the youth hockey program in your area worked?
GC: There was a coach who knew a lot about hockey and knew what to do, so it was pretty nice in that way. The equipment was donated from money raised from the diversity programs across the U.S. and the ice was free. There was about 12 to 15 [of us]. You had practice and afterwards they put you in a room and you talked about anything going on in your life, just to get away from the streets.

Did pursuing hockey ever raise eyebrows or jokes among relatives or your black friends?
GC: We had a local park around my area and we used to play basketball after school and after a while I stopped going. The kids at school were like "Where were you?" I told them I was playing hockey and some of them didn't understand. It was something I loved to do so it didn't bother me too much.
TD: My time coming up, basketball was getting really big in Toronto. You hear the little rumblings here and there, but hockey was what I loved and I wanted to play and nobody was stopping me.

Have you ever had a black teammate and did that change the dressing room dynamics for you?
TD: A couple of times. I played with Ray Emery in the Soo for a couple of years and Manny Malhotra, who's East Indian, I played with here in Dallas. Most of the way growing up in Toronto I had a black coach, so that definitely helped me. I've always been taught to be a leader and be proud of what you are and what you accomplished. I've never felt that I needed to try and fit in because of the situation [being the only black player].
GC: Andre Deveaux, when I played in Springfield, so that made it a little bit easier. We had a lot of friends of common, so we kind of knew each other.
If you're a good friend with everyone, no one sees colour, I've found. In the dressing room, you would kind of get jokes from the other players, but easy ones, it would never go across the line. If you got really defensive or mad about it, you would have got kind of shunned.

Trevor, how did you feel about the publicity that surrounded the incident when you played in the Soo?
TD: I have mixed feelings on that, definitely. It made it aware out there that it was capable of happening and that it shouldn't have happened. That was one of the upsides of having it out in the public. For myself, I really would have much rather had it kept in-house and nobody found out about it. I have mixed feelings about that, for sure. I didn't want answers or anything [from the coach]. I just wanted to let it go.

Gerald, have you ever had to endure any slurs or difficult experiences because of your background?
GC: Not since I joined the OHL, I had never come across anything that vulgar [as Daley]. When I was 13, I got called it. It was a kid and I think they learned it from their parents. I thought it was a lot easier [in Canada] because hockey is so widely diverse in Canada, because everyone plays. At the time, I think there were about four or five other black players in the OHL. The people in London were unbelievable to me and I never felt like I was different in any other way. Professionally, I think guys have so much respect and they don't want to be put in that position of being 'that guy' being singled out. Maybe I've been pretty lucky and you never really know what guys say behind closed doors.

Kevin Weekes said 10 years ago, when there were fewer black players, that they thought of themselves as a kind of fraternity. Is that feeling still there?
GC: Definitely. When I was up in Tampa, he was with the Rangers: we played them one game. He came over and talked. I had never met him [but] it felt like we had known each other for a lot of years. You always know who the black athletes in the NHL are and once you get up there, you want to talk to them to see how they are, what they're like. In a way, you gotta stick together. You are different even though you don't feel like it and just having guys out there like you makes you feel good about yourself.
TD: Yeah, it's just like having Europeans in the league. We have a bunch of Finnish guys on our team and they tend to stick together. Definitely when I get to see a young African-American coming up, I'm excited for them.

Gerald, there's Weekes, Emery, Grant Fuhr, Pokey Reddick, Fred Brathwaite and others. Any theories why a good percentage of the black players who've made it to the NHL have been goaltenders?
GC: I don't really know. For me, I started at a later age so I kind of got pushed behind. I couldn't skate very well so I got pushed into goal. It's just the luck of the draw, I guess.

Does it ever get wearying having your background brought up more than most players instead of people just focusing on your stats?
TD: A little bit, just because I had that situation happen [in junior] and as well I had a situation getting arrested (Ed. note: Charges were dropped). Obviously I'd much rather be looked upon as someone that's doing good stuff and having good experiences.
GC: You know that going in. No matter what I do or how I well I do, you're different. It's how you deal with it and how you portray yourself.